The connect:charger from Linde Material Handling

Efficient charge management is now more important than ever. In modern warehouses, the majority of goods are transported by electrically powered industrial trucks. Balanced capacity utilisation and permanent operational readiness of all forklift trucks are vital criteria when it comes to ensuring a seamless material flow. The charging process is the main factor that ultimately determines the availability of electric forklifts and warehouse trucks.

However, charging several industrial trucks at the same time can cause unintentional peaks in consumption, leading to high electricity costs. The Linde connect:charger offers a charge management solution that is capable of networking multiple chargers via one central control unit and coordinating the charging process. This provides a transparent overview of your trucks’ energy consumption, whilst effectively helping to save costs.

Avoid peaks in consumption through charge management

The majority of trucks in an electric forklift fleet are usually connected to the charger at the same time, such as at the end of a shift or during breaks. This results in unforeseen peaks in energy consumption known as charging peaks, which, in the worst cases, can lead to high electricity costs. For companies with a high electricity demand, many energy suppliers continually measure their consumption via an electricity meter. Even a one-off case where the agreed limits are exceeded during a peak in consumption can lead to a permanent cost increase with electricity providers. Charge management is the key when it comes to reliably avoiding soaring costs.

connect:charger is an innovative solution comprising hardware and software. It provides you with a complete overview of your trucks’ energy consumption at all times and controls the charge management of your fleet, thereby avoiding unnecessary peaks in consumption. This is how it works:

• Capture charging data: The trucks' chargers are equipped with the hardware unit of the connect:charger. When a truck is connected to the charging station, this device records the charge status of the connected charger and sends the data to the software via the local network.
• Analyse energy consumption: The transmitted data is processed by the software and clearly displayed to the user on a dashboard. This allows the operator to see when and how much power was used during the course of the day and when each charger was active at a glance.
• Prevent peaks in consumption: The Load Balancing function makes avoiding energy peaks easy. The software allows users to determine how much power is used, and for how long. Chargers are now managed in such a way as to ensure that certain charging capacities are not exceeded at specific times. This means that connected batteries are automatically charged to the correct level.